Brother Zhu Youxiao
Chapter 400 South Asian Dilemma
Chapter 400 South Asian Dilemma
"Li Wonton, the meat of your wonton today is not good..."
"Prices have skyrocketed recently. If we don't want to increase the price of vegetables, we can only replace them with cheap official pork."
At a roadside wonton stall on Caishi Street in Nancheng, some diners were picky about the meaty taste of the wontons, but the stall owner who made the wontons could only explain.
"Oh...that's true. The price of rice has risen to three and a half pennies a catty. It's a good conscience not to raise the price of your wonton noodles."
"Let's eat noodles, I have to go to the dock to work later."
"What's the rush? All the workers in the countryside have gone home to farm. There are plenty of dock workers right now. It's okay to go an hour later..."
When the diners heard the words, they sighed and revealed some news.
Zhu Youjian, Cui Yingyuan and two Jin Yiwei in casual clothes sat at a low table in the booth.
While eating wonton noodles, Zhu Youjian listened to the discussion of the people behind him, and understood something in his heart.
He visited for two hours, and saw a lot of problems that needed to be solved, as well as the people's livelihood.
As far as people's livelihood is concerned, since the severe drought in North Zhili receded westward this year, many farmers who went to work in cities due to the drought have returned to their hometowns to farm.
This has greatly improved the employment environment where there were many workers and few workers, and some jobs that sell labor have been freed up.
Right now, the number of jobs in the capital and the labor force are barely equal, so some businessmen naturally dare not lower their wages like they did in the previous drought, but instead restored their wages to what they were in the sixth year of the apocalypse.
Naturally, their restoration of wages was also the result of Zhu Youjian's decree from the imperial court and the supervision of the local yamen.
When the severe drought was at its worst, Lifu's salary in the capital was only [-] yuan a day, but now it has returned to [-] yuan a day.
In fact, if the wages are based on market conditions, it should take several years to slowly rise. After all, businessmen band together to lower wages, and workers have nothing to do with them.
However, under the supervision of the imperial court, businessmen in Beizhili still did not dare to make trouble, and their wages were restored one after another.
For this reason, they often scolded Zhu Youjian behind their backs, because one of Zhu Youjian's policies made them lose a lot of money.
Zhu Youjian knew all these things, but he still felt that he had to see the employment environment in Beijing with his own eyes.
As for the daily necessities, rice, oil, salt and various prices of the people's livelihood, Zhu Youjian also basically read it.
The price of firewood, salt and cloth has been very stable due to the government's control and the fact that there is no drought in Fujian and Zhejiang.
As for the processing of crops such as rice and oil, the price has risen a lot due to the severe drought. However, the Changping warehouse of Chaotang has been continuously releasing grain, and the production of peanuts in Jiaozhi has sprung up in recent years, so the price of rice and oil can still be controlled. .
But even so, the current rice price is relatively high in the Tianqi years.
When the situation was at its best during the reign of Tianqi, the price of rice in the capital was no more than two or seven or eight pennies, but three and a half pennies was considered high.
It's just the issue of food. Zhu Youjian will not be particularly worried in three years, because the drought is subsiding. Except that Shanxi and Shaanxi are suffering more, the price of rice in Beizhili should fall back to the level of [-] cents.
What he cares about is how to use these three years to allow the people to accumulate enough capital for drought resistance.
During the four years of drought, most of the family property accumulated by the imperial court after allocating land was basically exhausted, leaving nothing to be done.
Facing the next wave of severe drought, Zhu Youjian has a lot of things to do in the past three years.
The captives must be destroyed, the assets of the common people must be accumulated, the anti-corruption campaign must be continued, the feudal vassals must stand firm, the official education must be promoted step by step, and the household registration system must be gradually implemented...
In short, there are too many things, but the most critical are the first three points.
"When will the subgrade construction of the railways in each province start? How many workers are recruited in each province? Let someone go and check..."
Zhu Youjian lowered his head and ate the wonton, but gave the order calmly, without Cui Yingyuan asking, the Jinyiwei Qianhu next to him got up and went to some alleys.
The hidden Jin Yiwei hurriedly asked, but Zhu Youjian stopped after eating a whole cup of tea. After wiping his mouth, he got up and continued walking deliberately on the busy Caishi Street.
How are the prices in Beijing?How is the life of the people?Is there any problem with employment?Have the government and county government bullied the people?
He had to ask these things slowly and carefully...
When he saw that it was almost the same, he wandered to Dongcheng, and the Jin Yiwei sent out also delivered the news to him half an hour later.
According to Zhu Youjian's policy, nine railways started construction at the same time, but railway construction did not directly lay railways.
Because the former post road was left to the government road to build a cement road, the railway had to be replanned and the roadbed had to be rebuilt.
People from the Ministry of Industry are still wading through mountains and rivers to select routes. Zhou Yanru, who was awarded the Minister of Industry, is also rushing from Sichuan to the capital. Zhou Yanru is expected to arrive in the capital in May, and the Ministry of Industry will complete the summary of the basic railway routes on the first day of June.
Due to the severe drought, this year's employment is not based on the needs of the Ministry of Industry, but on the needs of the victims.
Therefore, the railways in various provinces basically choose to develop while hiring hungry people to dig.
According to the estimate of the Ministry of Industry, roadbed works will take up one-fifth of the time for each project.
Although the construction period of the nine railways is 15 years, the completion time of each railway is different.
For example, on the Jingmen Railway, the surveyors of the Ministry of Industry have already handed over the answer sheets for the [-]-mile railway.
The project started on March 5th, and is expected to recruit 25 workers. The roadbed construction will start on the first day of April, the roadbed will be completed on May 6000th, the railroad track will be laid on May [-]th, and the test will be completed on August [-]th. It will be open to traffic by the end of September at the latest. The cost is [-] taels.
The entire construction period is six months. Due to the large number of employees and the fact that the railway has only three stations and only affects more than 3 people, the Ministry of Industry estimates that it will take 140 years to pay back.
It is not just the investment and income of the Jingmen Railway that are not directly proportional, it can be said that this is the case for all railways.
Zhu Youjian didn't look at these, only the time.
Among the nine railway projects, the Jingmen Railway can be put into use this year. Maybe it will be open to traffic before the fourth version of the steam engine is produced.
Next is the Beijing-Tianjin Railway from Beijing to Tianjin, which also started construction on the first day of April and is expected to open to traffic by the end of next year.
These two railways are not long, and the sum is less than 260 miles.
Compared with them, among the remaining seven ultra-long railways, the earliest one will take seven years to complete, that is, the Beijing-Liaoning Railway from Beijing to Shenyang.
Needless to say about the other things, Zhu Youjian read it briefly, then folded the paper and returned it to Cui Yingyuan.
Walking to the east city, it is naturally not far from Qi Wang's mansion. Without too much hesitation, Zhu Youjian chose to return to the mansion.
The Baiwangfang was unusually quiet, and normally the kings wouldn't go out for a stroll, because the palace itself was a shrunken version of the town.
Of course, more reasons are due to the continuous migration of the feudal clans since last year.
In more than half a year, more than ten vassal kings and more than forty county kings moved one after another. According to the time, the earliest vassals who migrated should have arrived in South Asia in February.
Huanglong should have received a letter from the imperial court and learned of the imperial court's arrangement to support Xiao Xiyang.
But judging from the time and previous information, they should be busy resisting the Mughals now...
"put!"
"Boom bang bang-"
When Zhu Youjian returned to the Qi Palace, as he had imagined, violent shelling sounded on the Deccan Plateau in the south-central part of the Indian peninsula.
The difference is that it was not the Yanshan artillery of the Ming army that fired the bombardment, but the cannons of the Mughal army.
The Mughal Dynasty was different from other Mongolian Khanates in that it was not a purely nomadic country, but a very powerful gunpowder dynasty, and this was a system established from the founding of the country.
Although the founding emperor of the Mughal dynasty, Babur, was a Turkic Mongol, he was particularly good at using various firearms.
If it works from top to bottom, Babur is like this, and the descendants of future generations are naturally not bad.
Therefore, in the large-scale use of matchlock guns, the Mughals have even been used longer than many European countries.
Not only that, the Mughal Empire established artillery factories in Shimu and other places. As early as the last century, it formed a heavy artillery team with [-] cannons and a light artillery team with more than [-] horse-drawn cannons.
In addition, the Mughal Dynasty did not lack gunpowder raw materials like Japan, but was a big saltpeter country comparable to Ming Dynasty, so their application of firearms was no worse than that of Ming Dynasty.
In addition, in terms of finance, the financial revenue of the Mughal Empire was more than 2 million rupees, which was equivalent to 7000 million taels of silver, more than double the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period.
Even if the Ming Dynasty has gone through Zhu Youjian's ten-year reform, it is barely on par with the Mughal Dynasty in terms of finance.
As for the military, the Mughal dynasty used foreigners to manufacture and operate artillery, and regarded external artillerymen as a national policy.
The reason why this national policy was formulated was mainly because the core of the entire dynasty was a large number of Persian and Turkic military leaders and civil servants.
These people were not good at firearms, so the Mughals could only hire talents from Ottomans and Europe.
By the way, compared with Ming Dynasty, the salary standard of officers in the Mughal army is the top in the whole world.
Also commanding 500 people, Mughal officers can earn more than 300 taels of silver per year, and officers who command 5000 people can earn 6000 taels of silver per year.
As for the more senior military officers, their annual income reached tens of thousands of taels of silver.
In comparison, the same garrison salary of 500 men in the Ming Dynasty was 500 taels, the salary of a general who commanded 3000 men was 800 taels, and the salary of the general soldier who commanded 200 men was only [-] taels.
In addition to the salaries of low-level military officers, the Ming Dynasty can look down on the Mughal Dynasty, when it comes to the treatment of middle-level and high-level military officers, the Mughal military officers completely crushed the Ming military officers.
Not only that, but the Mughal dynasty had a tradition of never arrears of wages, and musket soldiers also received double wages.
As for the salary of the Mughal artillery, it is very high. In addition to the regular salary of 50 taels of silver, the artillery of the Mughal Dynasty can also enjoy various benefits.
Such a Mughal dynasty was a great threat to the Ming Dynasty. Fortunately, although the kings and military leaders of the Mughal dynasty realized the role of artillery, they were unwilling to learn it due to tradition and national characteristics. Just throw money at people to level them up.
But even if they are power leveling, they have caused the Ming army to suffer a lot.
"Damn! When will the gunpowder be delivered to the rear? The front line has retreated three hundred miles!"
On the south bank of the Godavari River, under a series of civil engineering projects, the familiar Mandarin Mandarin of Ming Dynasty sounded in the way of "exiting dirty".
In the hidden command room of civil engineering artillery, Li Zicheng, who had been promoted to a general, yelled and cursed, and around him, Liu Zongmin, Li Zijing, Zhu Yujian, Zhu Changqing and others also had ugly faces.
In one year, the Ming army moved from the south of the South Asian Peninsula to the north, sweeping across the major states and sultanates. The peak of the army was the last lunar month.
On the 23rd day of the twelfth month of the ninth year of the Apocalypse, they pushed as far north as the Narmada River in the central part of the Indian Peninsula, and further north was the Vindya Mountains, and after crossing the Vindya Mountains, they came to the endless Ganges Plain.
Although the Ming army took the "blitzkrieg" route, they used cavalry and a large number of horse and infantry lightly armed raids to take down the major city-states of various countries.
Even under this tactic, many small city-states have not yet been captured by the Ming army, but in general, the Ming army has become a veritable "overlord" south of the Narmada River.
However, without waiting for the Ming army to wipe out other small city-states, rebellions broke out in Tanjore, Mysore and other places in the south.
Under such circumstances, Lu Xiangsheng led the [-] Ming army in the south to encircle and suppress the rebels in various places, and the city-states of the major sultanates also took the opportunity to harass the Ming army's convoy.
After getting the news, Huanglong left ten battalions of infantry, three battalions of cavalry, one battalion of artillery, and 5000 Yanshan five-jin cannons. After a total of [-] people were stationed on the Narmada River, he personally commanded the seventh battalion of horses to go south to flatten the river. Rebellion, by the way, get through the supply line connecting the coastal city.
Although the supply line was broken, Huanglong did not panic, because the Ming army in the north seized a large amount of food, enough to last half a year.
What he cared about was the gunpowder brought in from the old port. After all, without gunpowder, it would be difficult for the Ming army to defend the defense line of the Narmada River.
As a result, at this juncture, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered troops to be dispatched.
The [-] soldiers and horses composed of [-] Musketeers, [-] Light Infantry, [-] Cavalry, [-] Elephants, and [-] Artillery were divided into seven legions, facing the Narmada River defense line of the Ming Army in seven directions. Launch an attack.
Since the Narmada River itself is in a valley, and the Mughal army launched an attack from the vantage point of the Wendiya Mountains, and the Ming army was short of gunpowder, the general Qi Yuanfu had no choice but to order a retreat after two months of defense. military order.
The retreat of the Ming army was more than 300 miles, and the whole army withdrew to the south bank of the Godavari River.
The Godavari River is the largest river in south-central India. It originates from the eastern foothills of the Western Ghats. The river flows southeast through the Deccan Plateau, and finally divides into several branches and flows into the Bay of Bengal. The total length of the river is nearly [-] miles.
Due to the dense network of the Godavari River, numerous tributaries, and spring rains, the Ming army successfully blocked the [-] Mughal army by relying on the river network.
However, the lack of gunpowder is a fact. Unless at a critical moment, the Ming army cannot use artillery to counterattack the Mughal army, and the Mughals rely on their proximity to the mainland to continuously transport gunpowder to the front line, shelling the Ming army's defense line every day.
Li Zicheng's scolding just now was also because of his helpless complaint after being shelled for more than half a month.
During the two-and-a-half-month confrontation, the Ming and Mogul armies each suffered casualties. The Ming army killed more than [-] people on the way to defend and retreat, while the Mughals were blocked by the Ming army in the river network and killed more than [-] people.
It seemed that the Ming army had the upper hand, but only [-] Ming troops were left in charge of defense.
On the contrary, Shah Jahan added another 5000 troops after taking hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land left by the Ming army, and the Mughal army on the front line reached a full 12.
4 people defending 12, plus the end of the spring rain, the arrival of summer...
Such a situation is not only uncomfortable for Li Zicheng, but also for all the generals of the Ming army.
"Recently, there are many unaccustomed soldiers in the army, and the number of non-combat casualties has reached more than 800. If Governor Huang and Inspector Lu can't wipe out the rebels, I'm afraid we..."
Zhu Yujian frowned and spoke, and his questioner was naturally Qi Yuanfu who was sent to assist Huang Long.
But facing this situation, Qi Yuanfu was also very helpless.
In the rear are 10,000+ rebels fighting guerrillas, and 3000 to 14 million South Asian natives who attempted to rebel, while the Ming army had less than 25 relocated civilians in addition to less than [-] sea and land soldiers.
But it is not without good news, because half a month ago, the first batch of feudal lords landed in Ceylon Mansion under the protection of the tenth battalion and [-] troops of the Southern Commander's Mansion.
Originally, their purpose was to land directly in Tanjore. As a result, the rebels in Tanjore and other places are currently in turmoil, and Lu Xiangsheng and Huanglong are countering the rebellion from south to north. Naturally, the feudal lords will not land.
They brought more than 6 people who had migrated and more than 3 guard soldiers and settled down temporarily in Ceylon.
Knowing that reinforcements were coming, Lu Xiangsheng used his identity as an inspector to transfer the ten battalions to the seventh battalion, and commanded more than [-] people to advance from south to north to counter the rebellion.
Huanglong recovered coastal city-states and inland cities from north to south and from outside to inside.
According to this time, the coastal city-states can be recovered within two months at most, and then the rebels in the interior can be encircled and suppressed.
"Captain Huang and Inspector Lu can take back the coast within two months at most, so you don't have to worry."
Qi Yuanfu spoke to comfort the new generation of generals, but at the same time he was disappointed with their spirit.
For a general like him who came from the Wanli period, the temporary suppression of the war was nothing. Although the Ming army was being beaten passively at the moment, it was caused by many unexpected factors.
As long as the counter-insurgency in the south is over and another ten battalions of reinforcements land in South Asia, the Ming army can immediately organize an army of 12 and a great advantage of more than 2000 artillery pieces to fight back.
The current defeat doesn't mean anything, let alone a drop in morale.
"But it's okay..." Looking at Li Zicheng and other generals, Qi Yuanfu sighed in his heart:
"It's good to let them suffer, otherwise they will be defeated by a strong enemy in the future, and I'm afraid they will suffer a lot."
"It's not a problem if you don't get used to it..." Li Zijing hugged his helmet and said with a frown.
His words won the sympathy of many people. After all, [-] employees were reduced in just over half a month, and those two months were the first battalion.
At present, there are only 4 battalions left in the Ming army on the Godavari River defense line, and one of the battalions has lost more than half of its personnel. The entire army has only [-] people.
When summer comes and the area of the river network shrinks, the defensive pressure of the Ming army will increase rapidly.
It is really embarrassing for a defense line of more than 500 miles to be garrisoned by only [-] Ming troops.
"Soldiers who are not acclimatized, please send them to Patam to rest first. It has been recovered by the governor, and the gunpowder ships from Ceylon will also arrive at the port there."
"The team will be led by Zhu Changqing. By the way, he will take the brothers from Nanhaiying to Patam to rest and supervise the local natives' cultivation and collect the land tax."
Qi Yuanfu made safe arrangements. Although the Ming army still had enough food, just in case, he still left a way out for himself.
If the Ming army really couldn't defend the Godavari River defense line, then it would not be too late to raise 12 troops for the Northern Expedition after retreating to Patam on the coast and going south by boat to join the army.
The combat effectiveness of the Mughal army was indeed good, and the Ming army had underestimated them before.
Qi Yuanfu realized the Ming army's mistake, and watched Zhu Changqing lead the order to retreat, and then he said:
"There is still one month of summer to come. According to the locals, the water network will degrade on a large scale in April, and we will face a hard battle by then."
"Save a little gunpowder. When Lu inspectors recover Tanjore and other places and open up the eastern coastal corridor, then we will attack the "Southern Captives" head-on."
"I'm waiting for orders—"
Qi Yuanfu's words won the approval of many generals, and they took the title of "Southern Prisoner" for the Turkic Mongolian nobles of the Mughals.
This is basically the old tradition of the Ming army, or the old tradition of the Ming Dynasty.
No matter what happens here in Daming, as long as you are an enemy, I will give you a few ugly nicknames first.
For example, the emperor of the Mughal Dynasty, in the mouths of Li Zicheng and others, took "Shah Jahan" as a "killer".
Receiving Qi Yuanfu's comfort, Li Zicheng and others walked out of the civil engineering work. In the trench less than six feet deep and five feet wide, they, as generals, saw many soldiers lying in the trench moaning.
Most of these soldiers are not acclimatized, and Zhu Changqing, who has been ordered now, is calling the Nanhai Camp, which has lost half of the battalion, to take these soldiers away.
They groaned uncomfortably, and then were escorted away in twos and twos by the soldiers of the Nanhai Battalion.
Since this place has a tropical monsoon climate, even though it is only March, it is already very hot, and the humid environment around makes many soldiers feel uncomfortable.
"Damn Nanlu..."
Seeing the soldiers being helped away in the trench, Li Zicheng and others felt uncomfortable and could only curse in a low voice.
But before they scolded for a long time, the artillery of the Mughal army "boomed" again.
Lying on the edge of the trench, Li Zicheng and others looked at the Mughal army on the other side of the river with binocular clairvoyance.
It seems that the previous blockade by the Ming army made the Mughal army terrified. They did not dare to forcibly cross the river while shelling, for fear that they would be defeated by the Ming army during the short-handed process and leave a lot of corpses.
They are currently bombarding the Ming army's positions with impunity, and seeing this scene, Li Zicheng can't help but feel a little aggrieved:
"Damn! It's only me, Da Ming, who can bombard people, so no one dares to bombard me, Daming."
"When the gunpowder from Ceylon arrives in Patam, I will let them taste the power of Yanshan artillery... Bah!"
Li Zicheng spat at the Mughal army, and Liu Zongmin and others beside him also spat.
It's just that the saliva didn't spit out for a while, and the sound of the cannon fired again immediately made the group of peasant children from northern Shaanxi shrink their heads subconsciously.
"Mother! Kill me if you have the ability!"
Liu Zongmin yelled in the direction of the Mughal army, but he squatted down immediately after the yelling.
Li Zicheng patted him with a smile, and the other generals who were also from northern Shaanxi also looked at each other and smiled, showing their big white teeth.
"Ha ha……"
Hearty laughter rang out as the shelling ended, permeating the trenches, bringing a touch of color to the cruel black-and-white war...
Tonight's update will be around ten o'clock. At six or seven o'clock, it is estimated that the war situation and power map of the South Asian subcontinent will be updated in the comment area or the easter egg chapter.
(End of this chapter)
"Li Wonton, the meat of your wonton today is not good..."
"Prices have skyrocketed recently. If we don't want to increase the price of vegetables, we can only replace them with cheap official pork."
At a roadside wonton stall on Caishi Street in Nancheng, some diners were picky about the meaty taste of the wontons, but the stall owner who made the wontons could only explain.
"Oh...that's true. The price of rice has risen to three and a half pennies a catty. It's a good conscience not to raise the price of your wonton noodles."
"Let's eat noodles, I have to go to the dock to work later."
"What's the rush? All the workers in the countryside have gone home to farm. There are plenty of dock workers right now. It's okay to go an hour later..."
When the diners heard the words, they sighed and revealed some news.
Zhu Youjian, Cui Yingyuan and two Jin Yiwei in casual clothes sat at a low table in the booth.
While eating wonton noodles, Zhu Youjian listened to the discussion of the people behind him, and understood something in his heart.
He visited for two hours, and saw a lot of problems that needed to be solved, as well as the people's livelihood.
As far as people's livelihood is concerned, since the severe drought in North Zhili receded westward this year, many farmers who went to work in cities due to the drought have returned to their hometowns to farm.
This has greatly improved the employment environment where there were many workers and few workers, and some jobs that sell labor have been freed up.
Right now, the number of jobs in the capital and the labor force are barely equal, so some businessmen naturally dare not lower their wages like they did in the previous drought, but instead restored their wages to what they were in the sixth year of the apocalypse.
Naturally, their restoration of wages was also the result of Zhu Youjian's decree from the imperial court and the supervision of the local yamen.
When the severe drought was at its worst, Lifu's salary in the capital was only [-] yuan a day, but now it has returned to [-] yuan a day.
In fact, if the wages are based on market conditions, it should take several years to slowly rise. After all, businessmen band together to lower wages, and workers have nothing to do with them.
However, under the supervision of the imperial court, businessmen in Beizhili still did not dare to make trouble, and their wages were restored one after another.
For this reason, they often scolded Zhu Youjian behind their backs, because one of Zhu Youjian's policies made them lose a lot of money.
Zhu Youjian knew all these things, but he still felt that he had to see the employment environment in Beijing with his own eyes.
As for the daily necessities, rice, oil, salt and various prices of the people's livelihood, Zhu Youjian also basically read it.
The price of firewood, salt and cloth has been very stable due to the government's control and the fact that there is no drought in Fujian and Zhejiang.
As for the processing of crops such as rice and oil, the price has risen a lot due to the severe drought. However, the Changping warehouse of Chaotang has been continuously releasing grain, and the production of peanuts in Jiaozhi has sprung up in recent years, so the price of rice and oil can still be controlled. .
But even so, the current rice price is relatively high in the Tianqi years.
When the situation was at its best during the reign of Tianqi, the price of rice in the capital was no more than two or seven or eight pennies, but three and a half pennies was considered high.
It's just the issue of food. Zhu Youjian will not be particularly worried in three years, because the drought is subsiding. Except that Shanxi and Shaanxi are suffering more, the price of rice in Beizhili should fall back to the level of [-] cents.
What he cares about is how to use these three years to allow the people to accumulate enough capital for drought resistance.
During the four years of drought, most of the family property accumulated by the imperial court after allocating land was basically exhausted, leaving nothing to be done.
Facing the next wave of severe drought, Zhu Youjian has a lot of things to do in the past three years.
The captives must be destroyed, the assets of the common people must be accumulated, the anti-corruption campaign must be continued, the feudal vassals must stand firm, the official education must be promoted step by step, and the household registration system must be gradually implemented...
In short, there are too many things, but the most critical are the first three points.
"When will the subgrade construction of the railways in each province start? How many workers are recruited in each province? Let someone go and check..."
Zhu Youjian lowered his head and ate the wonton, but gave the order calmly, without Cui Yingyuan asking, the Jinyiwei Qianhu next to him got up and went to some alleys.
The hidden Jin Yiwei hurriedly asked, but Zhu Youjian stopped after eating a whole cup of tea. After wiping his mouth, he got up and continued walking deliberately on the busy Caishi Street.
How are the prices in Beijing?How is the life of the people?Is there any problem with employment?Have the government and county government bullied the people?
He had to ask these things slowly and carefully...
When he saw that it was almost the same, he wandered to Dongcheng, and the Jin Yiwei sent out also delivered the news to him half an hour later.
According to Zhu Youjian's policy, nine railways started construction at the same time, but railway construction did not directly lay railways.
Because the former post road was left to the government road to build a cement road, the railway had to be replanned and the roadbed had to be rebuilt.
People from the Ministry of Industry are still wading through mountains and rivers to select routes. Zhou Yanru, who was awarded the Minister of Industry, is also rushing from Sichuan to the capital. Zhou Yanru is expected to arrive in the capital in May, and the Ministry of Industry will complete the summary of the basic railway routes on the first day of June.
Due to the severe drought, this year's employment is not based on the needs of the Ministry of Industry, but on the needs of the victims.
Therefore, the railways in various provinces basically choose to develop while hiring hungry people to dig.
According to the estimate of the Ministry of Industry, roadbed works will take up one-fifth of the time for each project.
Although the construction period of the nine railways is 15 years, the completion time of each railway is different.
For example, on the Jingmen Railway, the surveyors of the Ministry of Industry have already handed over the answer sheets for the [-]-mile railway.
The project started on March 5th, and is expected to recruit 25 workers. The roadbed construction will start on the first day of April, the roadbed will be completed on May 6000th, the railroad track will be laid on May [-]th, and the test will be completed on August [-]th. It will be open to traffic by the end of September at the latest. The cost is [-] taels.
The entire construction period is six months. Due to the large number of employees and the fact that the railway has only three stations and only affects more than 3 people, the Ministry of Industry estimates that it will take 140 years to pay back.
It is not just the investment and income of the Jingmen Railway that are not directly proportional, it can be said that this is the case for all railways.
Zhu Youjian didn't look at these, only the time.
Among the nine railway projects, the Jingmen Railway can be put into use this year. Maybe it will be open to traffic before the fourth version of the steam engine is produced.
Next is the Beijing-Tianjin Railway from Beijing to Tianjin, which also started construction on the first day of April and is expected to open to traffic by the end of next year.
These two railways are not long, and the sum is less than 260 miles.
Compared with them, among the remaining seven ultra-long railways, the earliest one will take seven years to complete, that is, the Beijing-Liaoning Railway from Beijing to Shenyang.
Needless to say about the other things, Zhu Youjian read it briefly, then folded the paper and returned it to Cui Yingyuan.
Walking to the east city, it is naturally not far from Qi Wang's mansion. Without too much hesitation, Zhu Youjian chose to return to the mansion.
The Baiwangfang was unusually quiet, and normally the kings wouldn't go out for a stroll, because the palace itself was a shrunken version of the town.
Of course, more reasons are due to the continuous migration of the feudal clans since last year.
In more than half a year, more than ten vassal kings and more than forty county kings moved one after another. According to the time, the earliest vassals who migrated should have arrived in South Asia in February.
Huanglong should have received a letter from the imperial court and learned of the imperial court's arrangement to support Xiao Xiyang.
But judging from the time and previous information, they should be busy resisting the Mughals now...
"put!"
"Boom bang bang-"
When Zhu Youjian returned to the Qi Palace, as he had imagined, violent shelling sounded on the Deccan Plateau in the south-central part of the Indian peninsula.
The difference is that it was not the Yanshan artillery of the Ming army that fired the bombardment, but the cannons of the Mughal army.
The Mughal Dynasty was different from other Mongolian Khanates in that it was not a purely nomadic country, but a very powerful gunpowder dynasty, and this was a system established from the founding of the country.
Although the founding emperor of the Mughal dynasty, Babur, was a Turkic Mongol, he was particularly good at using various firearms.
If it works from top to bottom, Babur is like this, and the descendants of future generations are naturally not bad.
Therefore, in the large-scale use of matchlock guns, the Mughals have even been used longer than many European countries.
Not only that, the Mughal Empire established artillery factories in Shimu and other places. As early as the last century, it formed a heavy artillery team with [-] cannons and a light artillery team with more than [-] horse-drawn cannons.
In addition, the Mughal Dynasty did not lack gunpowder raw materials like Japan, but was a big saltpeter country comparable to Ming Dynasty, so their application of firearms was no worse than that of Ming Dynasty.
In addition, in terms of finance, the financial revenue of the Mughal Empire was more than 2 million rupees, which was equivalent to 7000 million taels of silver, more than double the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period.
Even if the Ming Dynasty has gone through Zhu Youjian's ten-year reform, it is barely on par with the Mughal Dynasty in terms of finance.
As for the military, the Mughal dynasty used foreigners to manufacture and operate artillery, and regarded external artillerymen as a national policy.
The reason why this national policy was formulated was mainly because the core of the entire dynasty was a large number of Persian and Turkic military leaders and civil servants.
These people were not good at firearms, so the Mughals could only hire talents from Ottomans and Europe.
By the way, compared with Ming Dynasty, the salary standard of officers in the Mughal army is the top in the whole world.
Also commanding 500 people, Mughal officers can earn more than 300 taels of silver per year, and officers who command 5000 people can earn 6000 taels of silver per year.
As for the more senior military officers, their annual income reached tens of thousands of taels of silver.
In comparison, the same garrison salary of 500 men in the Ming Dynasty was 500 taels, the salary of a general who commanded 3000 men was 800 taels, and the salary of the general soldier who commanded 200 men was only [-] taels.
In addition to the salaries of low-level military officers, the Ming Dynasty can look down on the Mughal Dynasty, when it comes to the treatment of middle-level and high-level military officers, the Mughal military officers completely crushed the Ming military officers.
Not only that, but the Mughal dynasty had a tradition of never arrears of wages, and musket soldiers also received double wages.
As for the salary of the Mughal artillery, it is very high. In addition to the regular salary of 50 taels of silver, the artillery of the Mughal Dynasty can also enjoy various benefits.
Such a Mughal dynasty was a great threat to the Ming Dynasty. Fortunately, although the kings and military leaders of the Mughal dynasty realized the role of artillery, they were unwilling to learn it due to tradition and national characteristics. Just throw money at people to level them up.
But even if they are power leveling, they have caused the Ming army to suffer a lot.
"Damn! When will the gunpowder be delivered to the rear? The front line has retreated three hundred miles!"
On the south bank of the Godavari River, under a series of civil engineering projects, the familiar Mandarin Mandarin of Ming Dynasty sounded in the way of "exiting dirty".
In the hidden command room of civil engineering artillery, Li Zicheng, who had been promoted to a general, yelled and cursed, and around him, Liu Zongmin, Li Zijing, Zhu Yujian, Zhu Changqing and others also had ugly faces.
In one year, the Ming army moved from the south of the South Asian Peninsula to the north, sweeping across the major states and sultanates. The peak of the army was the last lunar month.
On the 23rd day of the twelfth month of the ninth year of the Apocalypse, they pushed as far north as the Narmada River in the central part of the Indian Peninsula, and further north was the Vindya Mountains, and after crossing the Vindya Mountains, they came to the endless Ganges Plain.
Although the Ming army took the "blitzkrieg" route, they used cavalry and a large number of horse and infantry lightly armed raids to take down the major city-states of various countries.
Even under this tactic, many small city-states have not yet been captured by the Ming army, but in general, the Ming army has become a veritable "overlord" south of the Narmada River.
However, without waiting for the Ming army to wipe out other small city-states, rebellions broke out in Tanjore, Mysore and other places in the south.
Under such circumstances, Lu Xiangsheng led the [-] Ming army in the south to encircle and suppress the rebels in various places, and the city-states of the major sultanates also took the opportunity to harass the Ming army's convoy.
After getting the news, Huanglong left ten battalions of infantry, three battalions of cavalry, one battalion of artillery, and 5000 Yanshan five-jin cannons. After a total of [-] people were stationed on the Narmada River, he personally commanded the seventh battalion of horses to go south to flatten the river. Rebellion, by the way, get through the supply line connecting the coastal city.
Although the supply line was broken, Huanglong did not panic, because the Ming army in the north seized a large amount of food, enough to last half a year.
What he cared about was the gunpowder brought in from the old port. After all, without gunpowder, it would be difficult for the Ming army to defend the defense line of the Narmada River.
As a result, at this juncture, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered troops to be dispatched.
The [-] soldiers and horses composed of [-] Musketeers, [-] Light Infantry, [-] Cavalry, [-] Elephants, and [-] Artillery were divided into seven legions, facing the Narmada River defense line of the Ming Army in seven directions. Launch an attack.
Since the Narmada River itself is in a valley, and the Mughal army launched an attack from the vantage point of the Wendiya Mountains, and the Ming army was short of gunpowder, the general Qi Yuanfu had no choice but to order a retreat after two months of defense. military order.
The retreat of the Ming army was more than 300 miles, and the whole army withdrew to the south bank of the Godavari River.
The Godavari River is the largest river in south-central India. It originates from the eastern foothills of the Western Ghats. The river flows southeast through the Deccan Plateau, and finally divides into several branches and flows into the Bay of Bengal. The total length of the river is nearly [-] miles.
Due to the dense network of the Godavari River, numerous tributaries, and spring rains, the Ming army successfully blocked the [-] Mughal army by relying on the river network.
However, the lack of gunpowder is a fact. Unless at a critical moment, the Ming army cannot use artillery to counterattack the Mughal army, and the Mughals rely on their proximity to the mainland to continuously transport gunpowder to the front line, shelling the Ming army's defense line every day.
Li Zicheng's scolding just now was also because of his helpless complaint after being shelled for more than half a month.
During the two-and-a-half-month confrontation, the Ming and Mogul armies each suffered casualties. The Ming army killed more than [-] people on the way to defend and retreat, while the Mughals were blocked by the Ming army in the river network and killed more than [-] people.
It seemed that the Ming army had the upper hand, but only [-] Ming troops were left in charge of defense.
On the contrary, Shah Jahan added another 5000 troops after taking hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land left by the Ming army, and the Mughal army on the front line reached a full 12.
4 people defending 12, plus the end of the spring rain, the arrival of summer...
Such a situation is not only uncomfortable for Li Zicheng, but also for all the generals of the Ming army.
"Recently, there are many unaccustomed soldiers in the army, and the number of non-combat casualties has reached more than 800. If Governor Huang and Inspector Lu can't wipe out the rebels, I'm afraid we..."
Zhu Yujian frowned and spoke, and his questioner was naturally Qi Yuanfu who was sent to assist Huang Long.
But facing this situation, Qi Yuanfu was also very helpless.
In the rear are 10,000+ rebels fighting guerrillas, and 3000 to 14 million South Asian natives who attempted to rebel, while the Ming army had less than 25 relocated civilians in addition to less than [-] sea and land soldiers.
But it is not without good news, because half a month ago, the first batch of feudal lords landed in Ceylon Mansion under the protection of the tenth battalion and [-] troops of the Southern Commander's Mansion.
Originally, their purpose was to land directly in Tanjore. As a result, the rebels in Tanjore and other places are currently in turmoil, and Lu Xiangsheng and Huanglong are countering the rebellion from south to north. Naturally, the feudal lords will not land.
They brought more than 6 people who had migrated and more than 3 guard soldiers and settled down temporarily in Ceylon.
Knowing that reinforcements were coming, Lu Xiangsheng used his identity as an inspector to transfer the ten battalions to the seventh battalion, and commanded more than [-] people to advance from south to north to counter the rebellion.
Huanglong recovered coastal city-states and inland cities from north to south and from outside to inside.
According to this time, the coastal city-states can be recovered within two months at most, and then the rebels in the interior can be encircled and suppressed.
"Captain Huang and Inspector Lu can take back the coast within two months at most, so you don't have to worry."
Qi Yuanfu spoke to comfort the new generation of generals, but at the same time he was disappointed with their spirit.
For a general like him who came from the Wanli period, the temporary suppression of the war was nothing. Although the Ming army was being beaten passively at the moment, it was caused by many unexpected factors.
As long as the counter-insurgency in the south is over and another ten battalions of reinforcements land in South Asia, the Ming army can immediately organize an army of 12 and a great advantage of more than 2000 artillery pieces to fight back.
The current defeat doesn't mean anything, let alone a drop in morale.
"But it's okay..." Looking at Li Zicheng and other generals, Qi Yuanfu sighed in his heart:
"It's good to let them suffer, otherwise they will be defeated by a strong enemy in the future, and I'm afraid they will suffer a lot."
"It's not a problem if you don't get used to it..." Li Zijing hugged his helmet and said with a frown.
His words won the sympathy of many people. After all, [-] employees were reduced in just over half a month, and those two months were the first battalion.
At present, there are only 4 battalions left in the Ming army on the Godavari River defense line, and one of the battalions has lost more than half of its personnel. The entire army has only [-] people.
When summer comes and the area of the river network shrinks, the defensive pressure of the Ming army will increase rapidly.
It is really embarrassing for a defense line of more than 500 miles to be garrisoned by only [-] Ming troops.
"Soldiers who are not acclimatized, please send them to Patam to rest first. It has been recovered by the governor, and the gunpowder ships from Ceylon will also arrive at the port there."
"The team will be led by Zhu Changqing. By the way, he will take the brothers from Nanhaiying to Patam to rest and supervise the local natives' cultivation and collect the land tax."
Qi Yuanfu made safe arrangements. Although the Ming army still had enough food, just in case, he still left a way out for himself.
If the Ming army really couldn't defend the Godavari River defense line, then it would not be too late to raise 12 troops for the Northern Expedition after retreating to Patam on the coast and going south by boat to join the army.
The combat effectiveness of the Mughal army was indeed good, and the Ming army had underestimated them before.
Qi Yuanfu realized the Ming army's mistake, and watched Zhu Changqing lead the order to retreat, and then he said:
"There is still one month of summer to come. According to the locals, the water network will degrade on a large scale in April, and we will face a hard battle by then."
"Save a little gunpowder. When Lu inspectors recover Tanjore and other places and open up the eastern coastal corridor, then we will attack the "Southern Captives" head-on."
"I'm waiting for orders—"
Qi Yuanfu's words won the approval of many generals, and they took the title of "Southern Prisoner" for the Turkic Mongolian nobles of the Mughals.
This is basically the old tradition of the Ming army, or the old tradition of the Ming Dynasty.
No matter what happens here in Daming, as long as you are an enemy, I will give you a few ugly nicknames first.
For example, the emperor of the Mughal Dynasty, in the mouths of Li Zicheng and others, took "Shah Jahan" as a "killer".
Receiving Qi Yuanfu's comfort, Li Zicheng and others walked out of the civil engineering work. In the trench less than six feet deep and five feet wide, they, as generals, saw many soldiers lying in the trench moaning.
Most of these soldiers are not acclimatized, and Zhu Changqing, who has been ordered now, is calling the Nanhai Camp, which has lost half of the battalion, to take these soldiers away.
They groaned uncomfortably, and then were escorted away in twos and twos by the soldiers of the Nanhai Battalion.
Since this place has a tropical monsoon climate, even though it is only March, it is already very hot, and the humid environment around makes many soldiers feel uncomfortable.
"Damn Nanlu..."
Seeing the soldiers being helped away in the trench, Li Zicheng and others felt uncomfortable and could only curse in a low voice.
But before they scolded for a long time, the artillery of the Mughal army "boomed" again.
Lying on the edge of the trench, Li Zicheng and others looked at the Mughal army on the other side of the river with binocular clairvoyance.
It seems that the previous blockade by the Ming army made the Mughal army terrified. They did not dare to forcibly cross the river while shelling, for fear that they would be defeated by the Ming army during the short-handed process and leave a lot of corpses.
They are currently bombarding the Ming army's positions with impunity, and seeing this scene, Li Zicheng can't help but feel a little aggrieved:
"Damn! It's only me, Da Ming, who can bombard people, so no one dares to bombard me, Daming."
"When the gunpowder from Ceylon arrives in Patam, I will let them taste the power of Yanshan artillery... Bah!"
Li Zicheng spat at the Mughal army, and Liu Zongmin and others beside him also spat.
It's just that the saliva didn't spit out for a while, and the sound of the cannon fired again immediately made the group of peasant children from northern Shaanxi shrink their heads subconsciously.
"Mother! Kill me if you have the ability!"
Liu Zongmin yelled in the direction of the Mughal army, but he squatted down immediately after the yelling.
Li Zicheng patted him with a smile, and the other generals who were also from northern Shaanxi also looked at each other and smiled, showing their big white teeth.
"Ha ha……"
Hearty laughter rang out as the shelling ended, permeating the trenches, bringing a touch of color to the cruel black-and-white war...
Tonight's update will be around ten o'clock. At six or seven o'clock, it is estimated that the war situation and power map of the South Asian subcontinent will be updated in the comment area or the easter egg chapter.
(End of this chapter)
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